Laelia esalqueana Blumensch. ex Pabst 1973 SUBGENUS Parviflorae SECTION Esalqueanae Withner 1990 Photo by © Lourens Grobler

LATE EARLY

Common Name The ESA-LQ Laelia [Acronym for Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz]

Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]

Found in Sao Paulo State of Brazil at elevations around 1100 to 1300 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, rupicolus lithophtye with clustered, stubby, fat, narrowly conical pseudobulbs carrying 1 to occasionally 2, thick, rigid, leathery, narrowly oblong, concave to scoop shaped, acute leaves that blooms in the late spring and early summer on a terminal, 1.6 to 2" [4 to 5 cm] long, simultaneously 2 to 4 flowered inflorescence arising through a sheath and just exceeds the length of the leaf.

Synonyms Cattleya esalqueana (Blumensch. ex Pabst) Van den Berg 2008; Hoffmannseggella esalqueana (Blumensch. ex Pabst) V.P.Castro & Chiron 2002; Sophronitis esalqueana (Blumensch. ex Pabst) Van den Berg & M.W.Chase 2000

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchidaceae Brasilienses Pabst & Dungs Band I 1975 drawing fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 10 576 - 632 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977; Orchid Digest Vol 48 No 1 1984 photo fide; Cattleyas and Their Relatives Vol 2 Withner 1990 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 under L flava; Lindleyana Vol 15 No 2 2000 as Sophronitis esqualeana; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 as Cattleya esqualeana photo fide

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